Posted here many moons ago
triblive.com
Happy New Year to all FORE Threaders
=============== here is a copy also
High-tech company to add 1,000 jobs
By Thomas Olson
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Fore Systems Inc. plans to hire some 1,000 people within the
next two years in conjunction with a roughly $40 million
expansion slated for its high-tech corporate campus in Marshall
Township, according to a senior executive.
The plans show the young computer-networking company
already is outgrowing the futuristic, three-building complex it
constructed just one year ago. Fore now intends to construct
another three buildings, adding 300,000 square feet to its
Allegheny County site.
Fast-growing Fore currently employs 1,700 people
companywide, compared with just 150 people roughly four
years ago. The company does business in about 85 countries
and has about 30 offices in roughly 20 nations.
"We do move at a quick pace," Bruce Haney, Fore's chief
financial officer, said last night. "Our plans are that we should
hire another 1,000 people over the next two years or so" at the
corporate campus.
The new hires would consist of engineers, sales representatives,
customer support personnel and administrators.
Fore's gleaming glass headquarters is 305,000 square feet
spread across three structures. Plans call for a new
140,000-square-foot manufacturing and support structure to be
completed by the end of next year, Haney said.
Then, Fore intends to add two more buildings, covering another
160,000 square feet, in the next two to three years.
The $40 million budgeted for Fore's expansion "is very close to
what we spent on phase one," Haney said.
Word that Fore harbored extensive hiring plans first surfaced
during a recent meeting of the North Allegheny School District
Board. Fore is seeking to double its current six-year tax
abatement from the district. If granted, it would extend the
high-tech company's total waiver to $2.5 million.
In exchange for another six tax-free years, Fore pledged to
upgrade the North Allegheny School District's computer
network and provide it with distance learning capabilities.
State law encourages school districts to provide such tax
incentives to stimulate business growth. But the school board is
divided on whether it should forfeit tax revenue in the name of
economic development. The school board postponed a vote on
the issue last week.
"Plans are, if certain things happen, that we'll basically double
(the space) that we have today," Haney said.
The senior executive repeated the grandiose hiring plans when
he briefed investors and analysts at a technology conference in
New York yesterday, according to Bloomberg News.
"Our business has grown dramatically over the past three to four
years, from sales of a little under $50 million in 1994 to about
$458 million" in the fiscal year ended last March, Haney said.
Fore's equipment is used by large businesses and telephone
companies to combine voice and data communications on their
computer networks. With today's torrent of Web surfers,
Internet service providers and phone companies are fueling a
heavy demand for the company's computer switches.
The high-tech company opened its current $40 million
headquarters complex only a year ago. The Silicon Valley-style
campus, which sits on 96 acres in Marshall Township,
consolidated the company's local operations on one property.
In July, the company acquired another 6.1 acres from Marshall
Township for the second development phase of its corporate
headquarters. The township is scheduled to vote on final site
approval on Nov. 11.
Since its founding in 1990, Fore has been one of the Pittsburgh
region's hottest stocks. Its shares roughly have quadrupled in
value over the last five years, according to data from the Trib 30
stock index.
Fore hit something of a high-growth speed bump during the
quarter ended Sept. 30. A 35 percent profit increase was less
than Wall Street expected. The company explained sales of
older products fell because customers demanded the latest
equipment - orders Fore struggled to fill.
"Bookings were very strong last quarter, and that's a good sign
of the ongoing strength of our business," said Haney.
The company earned more than $35 million, or 35 cents a share,
last fiscal year, compared with roughly $41 million the year
earlier.
Fore's stock closed yesterday at $16.44 a share, up 81 cents.
The expansion plans mean Fore's management "is bullish about
their outlook," Martin Pyykkonen, a CIBC Oppenheimer
analyst, told Bloomberg News.
The company is known as a technological innovator, having
become the first company to commercialize the networking
technology called "asynchronous transfer mode." ATM, as it's
commonly known, uses products called switches that enable
computer users to transmit voice, video and data over computer
networks simultaneously. Fore makes these switches and related
networking products.
For instance, the company won a contract to wire a network for
the second largest cable operator in China on Oct. 27. Fore said
it will build an ATM network for China Guangdong Provincial
Cable. Guangdong said Fore's equipment will allow it to provide
broadcast video, distance learning, voice switching and Internet
service to its 400,000 subscribers. |
